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Play-Doh and Legos are among the most popular childhood building blocks. But what could you use if you wanted to create something really small—a structure less than the width of a human hair? A team of chemists has found that this can be achieved by creating particles that have both Play-Doh and Lego traits.
These "patchy particles" are 1/200th the width of a human hair and can form endless architectures from a handful of basic pieces. And unlike their larger counterparts, these particles can self-assemble. This process—self-assembly of predetermined micro-architectures—is similar to the way atomic crystals self-assemble from a specific mixture of atomic building blocks.Image credit: Theodore Hueckel
